I am referring precisely to obesity, which is caused by overconsumption. Sorry for the lack of clarity there.

Lean cuts of unprocessed red meat have weak associations with colon cancer and CVD in studies. Chicken and fish are great of course, but not as nutrient dense as red meat, outside of fish like salmon. As long as you are getting your levels checked on a regular basis (every 5 years recommended), and you tolerate red meat, and you are a healthy individual who doesn’t overconsume calories, you will be okay eating red meat. And also, the weak association with colon cancer seems to be completely negates with adequate fiber consumption.

I’m sorry to hear about your father. I’m glad that he’s still here and that they were able to do something about. If I can suggest any changes to your diet, make sure that you have adequate fiber consumption. The weak association with colon cancer that is found with red meat consumption seems to be negated by adequate fiber consumption in studies.

And of course processed meats like lunch meat have clear association as carcinogens, like lunch meats, bacon, some sausages etc, so if you’re willing to cut them out that’s great! And the fact that you feel better if even better even if it isn’t due to cutting it. Do what feels best for you. If you’re a healthy individual, I wouldn’t be too scared of unprocessed lean cuts of red meat if you tolerate it okay. Always be sure to get your levels checked regularly, I believe every 5 years is what recommended but I try to go in once a year.

My LDL to HDL ratio and my triglycerides are completely okay in my results. Of course it’s important to regularly test yourself and see how you respond to consumption. I am a healthy individual and I don’t encounter issues with regular red meat consumption.

Of course someone can smoke regularly and be lucky to be healthy in the long run but of course the risk of all sorts of issues are incredibly high, and that level of risk is not comparable to the weak associations found in observational studies on red meat.

To start, here’s a great article on what causes obesity (overconsumption) : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8450866/

Here is a great study on the major health risks of obesity : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6088226/

When it comes to studies on red meat, association is not very strong on red meat being inherently cancer-causing (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7015455/), and for those who are concerned, adequate fiber consumption seems to cancel out the risk: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588743/

Processed meats are obviously great to avoid, and you should watch your saturated fat consumption just because it does nothing to help your LDL to HDL cholesterol ratio, but generally eating lean meat (red or not) isn’t going to be a problem for a normal healthy individual. It’s one of the most nutrient dense foods you can get. For someone like me who is trying to gain muscle, it’s an amazing protein source as well. For people who are trying to lose weight, lean cuts of red meat would be greatly assisting as eating nutrient dense foods while in a caloric deficit helps with hunger cues and makes you feel more satiated. To demonize unprocessed lean meat is just flat out wrong.

Most concerns that people have such as cardiovascular disease and cancer are largely associated with overconsumption of food, not specific foods.

Correlation ≠ causation. You can consume meat 3 times a day and be a perfectly healthy individual like myself who lifts weights, runs, etc. Overconsumption of food is what leads to obesity, which ultimately leads to CVD if something else doesn’t get you first.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with eating non-processed meat, especially leaner cuts. What leads to most of the health issues we have today such as obesity is overconsumption of food. There are various types of diets that are perfectly healthy as long as you aren’t consuming over your metabolic rate. Going into a caloric surplus and becoming overweight is where most of our problems are.

Yeah theres plenty of diets that are perfectly fine. At the end of the day what leads to obesity is overconsumption, and cardiovascular disease is obviously very associated with obesity. The problem is that people don’t understand that eating nutrient dense foods is very important. We are all on different difficulty levels due to the fact that we all have different levels of hunger cues, but eating nutrient dense foods that are satiating and understanding to not eat over your basal metabolic rate would fix a lot of our problems.